National Security Blues

If you were working for the NSA, And saw how things are going down today, The Constitution going up in flames, They got your numbers and they got your name. Listen people, it is not TV. They call it national security. What ‘you gonna do, When they come for you?

Our government has fallen, anyone can see, To corporations and the aristocracy. They own the oceans and the continents, The Congress, and the judges, and the president. Devouring the planet and the commonwealth, They love money more than life itself, What ‘you gonna do? When they come for you?

Let me tell you what we’ve got in store. Gone down this road too many times before. They came for communists, they came for Jews. They’ll come for anybody that they choose. Don’t like the things you’re putting in the news, Don’t like your attitude or your tattoos. What ‘you gonna do? When they come for you?

Look at the people now who go to jail. It’s anybody who is not for sale. They paint protest as treason, and treason as truth, They don’t need a reason, and they need no proof. Don’t think that you can look on silently. Don’t think: ” it really won’t apply me.” What ‘you gonna do? When they come for you?

If you don’t want to see your world undone, Then listen up to Franklin and to Jefferson: Don’t trade your freedom for security, Or both are gonna perish, it’s a guarantee. Look at the signs, can you feel the heat? Can you hear the hoofbeats in the street? What ‘you gonna do? When they come for you? Wake your neighbor, Wake your neighbor.

Is the U.S. headed for fascism? Consider Mussolini’s own definition: “Fascism is a merger of state and corporate power“. The infamous 2010 Supreme Court “Citizens United” decision has already taken us decisively into this dark territory. At the same time, concerns about national security since 2001 have led to a mushrooming industry of surveillance and prison capacity. Some observers see in this unequivocal signs of a police state.

The United States is standing today at a terrible crossroads. We are leading the world into irreversible climate and human catastrophe, when we could be leading the way to a just and sustainable future. It is more important than ever for American men and women of conscience to engage in their time-honored role of civil disobedience on these issues. With inappropriate corporate control over our courts and Congress, however, such acts are increasingly being characterized as “treason”, or even “terrorism”. Even journalists and the press itself have come under attack.

Where does “National Security” legitimately fit in? Is Edward Snowden a “traitor”, as voices in Congress claim? Or are he and other contemporary whistleblowers really heroic modern-day Davids fighting against the Goliath of the American Empire? Is our historically unprecedented security establishment really protecting our homeland and our citizens, or merely the interests of the elites?

Loss of American freedoms. Since 9/11, American freedoms guaranteed by our Bill of Rights have been taken away in the name of national security. Our intelligence agencies, now have vastly greater powers than police states past or present ever possessed, and these powers require diligent and unblinking oversight from our courts and Congress. At the same time, it has become clear since “Citizens United” that the United States is indeed a “corporatocracy”, and is no longer a functioning democracy in any meaningful sense of the word. Our national policies cater primarily to the financial interests of a tiny, unimaginably wealthy elite, with little regard for justice or the general welfare.

It is striking that the mainstream news media (owned by just six giant corporations), have all condemned Snowden’s actions as treason. The alternative press, and voices around the world, however, applaud his actions as patriotic and heroic. As the Ecuadorian foreign minister recently asked, “The question is, who has betrayed whom?” In a healthy democracy, the citizens have privacy and the government is transparent. In today’s United States, the one-way mirror has been turned around: we have lost our privacy, while the workings of our government are increasingly hidden, even from Congress! The reason is simple: our government no longer serves the American people. We must wake up soon if we ever hope to get it back.

What can you do? For starters, turn off your television. It is the vehicle for the kind of propaganda we used to associate with the Soviet Union, only more sophisticated. Our mainstream media are no longer trustworthy. Learn about some of the contemporary movements to restore American freedom and self-government.